Disney World Proposes Raising Starting Wages To $10/Hour

While lawmakers in D.C. argue over whether or not to raise the federal minimum wage, Walt Disney Co. has made an offer to the unions representing thousands of employees at its Disney World park in Florida that would raise employees’ starting pay from $8.03 to $10 over the course of the next two years.

Bloomberg reports that Disney made the offer earlier this week to the Service Trades Council, a consortium of six labor groups representing more than 30,000 Disney World workers.

New full-time hourly employees at the park currently earn a wage starting at $8.03/hour, about 75 cents more per hour than the federal minimum wage. The offer from Disney to the unions would gradually increase that amount to $10/hour by July 2016, which is just shy of the $10.10/hour being proposed by President Obama and some legislators.

At the same time, these new employees would no longer be offered a standard pension, but would instead receive a 3% company match in a 401 (k) retirement plan.

The Council says it is “very pleased” with the pay increase offer but plans to oppose the change to the pension policy for new workers.